For a brief spell, it looked as though a repeat of that scoreline might have been on the cards when the Hammers took an 18th-minute lead courtesy of a fine strike by Collison.

A corner was only cleared as far as the edge of the Arsenal area where Collison charged in to smash a half-volley beyond a stranded Wojciech Szczesny.

Five-star Arsenal

Arsenal have scored five goals or more at Emirates Stadium on five occasions this season

Barely four minutes later an equally stunning strike from Podolski drew Arsenal level as Jack Wilshere found the German in space around 25 yards from goal and he drove the ball into the bottom-right corner of Jussi Jaaskelainen's goal.

Play continued to swing from one end to the other after that and a tremendous burst of pace from Walcott should have brought Arsenal's second, but his cross was cleared by James Tomkins.

Arsenal were piling on the pressure and had another great opportunity midway through the half when a lovely move ended with Podolski prodding a shot towards goal but Joey O'Brien was well placed to clear off the line.

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Allardyce wishes Potts well

Aaron Ramsey then did likewise at the other end of the pitch when the Welshman lashed Carlton Cole's goalbound effort away to safety after the West Ham striker had peeled away from the Arsenal defence.

Barely two minutes into the second half and Arsenal were ahead. Walcott sent a corner towards the near post and Giroud ghosted in to stab a volley into the net.

From then on Arsenal were rampant and for the next 10 minutes almost every attack resulted in a goal.

First, Giroud and Podolski combined to set up Cazorla, who cheekily back-heeled the ball beyond Jaaskelainen and just one minute later Walcott was picked out at the far post by Podoloski's low cross and he rifled the ball home.

A stunned West Ham conceded a fifth just before the hour when Giroud poked in from Podolski's ball.

Much to West Ham's undoubted relief, the pace of the game settled down after that, although Arsenal often looked capable of adding another goal whenever they attacked.

There was a break in play midway through the second half when Potts took a heavy knock and needed treatment for 10 minutes before he was stretched off the pitch.

By that stage, West Ham had used all their substitutes, meaning they had to play the remainder of the match with 10 men.

Due to the earlier injury to Potts, 12 minutes of injury time were needed after the 90 minutes were up and unsurprisingly Arsenal dominated with the man advantage.

Substitute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain saw a shot blocked, before Cazorla's effort was tipped wide by Jaaskelainen, but no further goals were forthcoming before the final whistle.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said:
"West Ham defended very well in the first half, we looked dangerous but couldn't finish our chances. We came out in the second half and attacked with tremendous pace. The injury to Dan Potts was the end of the game really but until that moment we played very well.

"In the Chelsea game there were a lot of positives, it was disappointing to lose, but we took the positives and transferred that into to this game.

"You want to be at your best every single game but we have many new players and it takes some time to get to know each other very well and I think that understanding is getting better."

West Ham manager Sam Allardyce said:
"It was 10 minutes of genius.

"We could say we could defend better but I thought they hit the ground running.

"The encouraging thing for them was that we switched off for one corner and that lifted them. In the first half we defended exceptionally well but that 10 minutes blew us away."

Thats right. A starting point would be take advantage of the obvious talent he has at his disposal, we don't have a bad team at all. Fix our obvious problems next (CM, CB first), sell the deadwood most of whom were bought cheap so no real loss if we give them away to get them off the wage bill. the only reason we are not where we should be is a succession of poor managerial decisions !!

Fergie's Hammer - what impresses me about Fergie is his ability to re-invent and adapt Man U to ALWAYS be challenging. Yes he makes mistakes but man U are ALWAYS there or thereabouts. The difference in wages between Man U and Arsenal is half the difference between Arsenal and Spurs - so the money argument is a load of rubbish - especially considering how many star names you have compared to us.

HotHead,You obviously care about your club and are not satisfied with the lack of ambition and silverware. Wenger would have been out of the door a long time ago anywhere else, but keep fighting for fourth.

Arsenal fans, you may be in the CL, but you have no chance of winning it.

Oddsonjohn - what we need to do first is utilise what we have. Stop playing players out of position. Stop playing 4-3-3 which does NOT suit us. Stop playing tippy tappy football and move the ball forward like we have in successive games 2nd halves. Then plug the middle with steel, 6ft, fast and a strong tackler to make opponents think twice about running through the middle.

MarkyP - Of course the money made City/Chelsea winners. BUT we can't use the excuse that money has held us back when we continually buy the wrong players and pay massively high wages to fringe players we cannot now sell due to said high wages ! Get rid of 2 deadwood players on £50k p/w and pay a quality player £100k !!

Spurs' wage bill is £1m PER WEEK less than our's ! How ? We have NO stars!

Didn't see this last night after the game, I guess my whinging about the BBC finally paid off...But seriously, on the game itself Podolski was my MOTM, thought he had a very influential game & for a guy without many tricks he does bring a lot of intelligence into our play, we Still need another signing to play on the left. Not sure about Rambo as a DM, don't think he has the discipline. Good win

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